A California woman told police that veteran and media host Pete Hegseth, President-elect Trump’s pick for defense secretary, sexually assaulted her in 2017 after he took her phone and refused to let her leave a hotel room, a detailed police report said.
The police report, released after a public records request, says the victim in the case, a woman identified only as Jane Doe, was an organizer at the California Federation of Republican Women event at the Hyatt Hotel in Monterey when the alleged incident occurred between the night of Oct. 7 and Oct. 8 in 2017.
According to the primary narrative in the report, which cites a nurse at Kaiser Permanente, Doe was at a hotel bar drinking alcohol with co-workers. She does not remember most of the night and believes she was drugged, according to the police report. Doe told the nurse she remembers being ejaculated upon in a hotel room and believes she was raped.
Doe received care five days after the alleged incident occurred. A police officer who responded to the hospital after the nurse reported the incident said Doe identified Hegseth, a keynote speaker at the event who she was introduced to at an after-party at the hotel bar, as the suspect.
The police officer stated Doe witnessed Hegseth inappropriately rubbing other women's legs at the bar. She then had an argument with him at the event, which she says is the last thing she can clearly remember. Doe says she woke up in an unknown room that Hegseth was also in, and when she tried to leave, he blocked the door.
Doe says she then remembers Hegseth standing over her on a couch fully naked and then ejaculating on her, before throwing a towel at her and asking if she was okay, according to the police report. She later walked back to her hotel room.
Doe said she did not fully remember the event until having sex with her husband well after the incident and then a few days later went to the hospital.
The police officer said he found video evidence of the argument between Doe and Hegseth at a pool at the hotel, which later shows the two walking together with linked arms, with Doe reportedly smiling. There is no further video evidence of the two after they walked back to the hotel bar.
In the report, Hegseth says he does not remember an argument by the hotel pool and that he did not try to hit on Doe, but that she was interested in him and may have led him to his hotel room. Hegseth, who said he was "buzzed" that night, said the entire encounter was consensual and that Doe expressed regret afterward for cheating on her husband.
The Hill has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment, but a spokesperson told the AP that the police report “corroborates” Hegseth’s story, which is “the incident was fully investigated, and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false.”
The police report did not disclose whether officials believe the allegations are true or false.
Hegseth, known for his previous role as co-host of Fox News’s “Fox & Friends Weekend,” told police at the time that the encounter was consensual and denied wrongdoing.
He was picked by Trump to lead the Pentagon shortly after this month’s election, and his nomination came as a surprise given his relative lack of experience; Hegseth was an infantry officer in the Army National Guard.
The Monterey Police Department confirmed last week that it was investigating sexual assault allegations that came to light after his nomination.
Hegseth’s lawyer argued he was “completely innocent” and was actually the subject of blackmail from the accuser. The attorney noted he paid the woman in 2023 to fend off a potential lawsuit.
Many of Trump’s Cabinet picks are facing scrutiny ahead of confirmation — including former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as attorney general and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence — and Hegseth has received significant backlash over the allegations.
Hegseth is the second Trump Cabinet pick to be investigated for sexual misconduct. Gaetz, who resigned from Congress after receiving Trump’s nomination to head the Justice Department, was accused of sleeping with an underage girl, and Congress is battling over releasing a related House Ethics Committee report to the public.
Updated at 12:21 p.m. EST